Is there a way to limit the list?

Under XP, unfortunately no.

I thought I read somewhere in Winstep HELP (but cannot now find it) that there was a way of "refreshing" the list or something to that effect. I have a list a mile long which is virtually useless.

Well, blame Microsoft then. Under XP they literaly went out of their way to make sure external applications cannot meddle with the Recent Documents list.

Under Win9x the Recent Documents list was simply a folder with shortcuts to the most recent documents - to list it all you had to do was display the contents of that folder. Under Win2k/XP that folder fills up with HUNDREDS of shortcuts. Under Win2k you could still make sense of it by reading the Windows Registry, but then XP came out and they made sure nobody could make any sense of it.

Ok, since I really, really, hate to admit defeat (specially at the hands of Microsoft) I armed myself with a copy of Registry Monitor and spent some time sniffing what Explorer was doing in the Windows Registry while displaying the Recently Used Documents list.

And so I figured it out. I can now make NextSTART Recent Document's menu and WorkShelf's Recent Documents shelf display exactly the same items as those displayed in the Windows Start Menu.

Hope that makes you a bit happier.

Anyway, since I also don't want to alienate those users who like the Recent Documents Menu/Shelf as they currently are, I think I will also add a choice in Preferences to select how many recent documents you want displayed. By default, that number will be the current Explorer default (usually 15).

"I thought I read somewhere in Winstep HELP (but cannot now find it) that there was a way of "refreshing" the list or something to that effect. I have a list a mile long which is virtually useless."

I did find what I was referring to: I can "CLEAR" the RECENT DOCS. list. That is better than having a list a mile long. But am happy about your discovery.